Baby Steps
by tinybit92
Summary: Soul wakes up in the middle of the night to find Maka crying in the kitchen. A bad dream turns out to be an opportunity to move their relationship a bit in the right direction. SoulxMaka fluff. T for some suggestive jokes to be seen in the second chapter.
1. Comfort

_First Soul Eater story, but I love this show/manga so much it'd be impossible not to write fics for it. Don't own anything obviously. Enjoy!_

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1:47am. That's what his clock said. Why the hell was he awake right now? He'd z-been asleep moments before. Now he was awake and he felt as if it were because something was wrong. Was it something he'd dreamed? He couldn't remember now that he was awake.

Sitting up, he decided that if he were already awake he may as well get something to drink. Dragging himself out of bed Soul made his way to his bedroom door and stumbled down the hall towards the kitchen. Upon reaching the end of the hallway he froze at the sight in front of him.

_Oh, _Soul thought, _this is what's wrong._

Maka was sitting alone at their kitchen table. She was slumped forward against the table in her flannel pajamas with her face in her hands. The lights were off, and she didn't appear to notice that Soul had entered.

He walked closer to the table until he stood about two feet away. His meister still hadn't noticed him. "Maka," he called quietly. She started upright and stared at him. "What're you doing up?" he asked now that he had her attention.

She continued to stare at him and he noticed that her breathing started getting irregular as she did. Was it his imagination or were her eyes starting to look wet? "Hey, are you alright?" She was beginning to worry him.

Suddenly, she stood up and threw arms around him.

"Whoa, Maka! What…?" He trailed off. She was shaking. Why was she shaking? Her head rested against his shoulder and he heard her make a soft sniffling sound. He felt a slight dampness begin to soak through his t-shirt. She was crying. Maka was crying. As soon as he came to this realization one arm wrapped around her waist to pull her closer and his other hand moved to the back of her neck. She began to let out small sobs and he rubbed soothing circles against her neck with his thumb. "Shh…" He whispered. "It's alright."

For several minutes he held her as she cried. When Maka's sobbing quieted a bit Soul ventured a question. "What happened?"

"Nightmare," she hiccupped out. "Everyone was dead. There were bodies everywhere and I tripped. W-when I turned to look it was you. I tripped over your body Soul. You were… laying in a pool of blood and…" Her voice shook and she started crying harder again. He tightened his grip on her. "It was so real Soul. I woke up and I really wasn't sure if you-"

"Shush," He interrupted. "I'm fine. Nobody's dead. It was just a dream Maka, you're alright." He let her cry herself out in his arms.

When she finally stopped he carefully asked "Better?"

"Yeah. Thanks," she said with another little sniffle.

"Good." He started to pull away but Maka held on.

"Wait, Soul." She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. "Can we please… stay like this? Just a little longer?" She was blushing as she asked, but there was a sort of desperation in her eyes.

He smiled. "Sure Maka, no problem."

She sighed with evident relief and returned her face to the crook of his neck. "Thank you," she mumbled.

They stood in the dark kitchen holding on to each other. Soul soon began to realize that he liked this. He liked the way she fit against his body, the feel of her breathing, her heart beat against his chest. Why didn't they do this more often? _Because we're just friends, _he answered his own question. This was the sort of thing a boyfriend did with his girlfriend. Maka was the closest friend he'd ever had, but he was fairly sure she didn't think of him as anything more than that. _Then again, she's the one who wants me to hold her right now._

Maybe she did like him more than he thought. This certainly wouldn't be an appropriate time to ask. _But we can take baby steps, _he told himself.

He slowly pulled away and took Maka's hand in his. "Come with me." He pulled her in the direction of their living room as she gave him a confused look.

"Soul what are you-?"

"Shush." He told her again. He led her over to the couch and sat down with his back against the armrest and his legs spread across the cushions. Just when it looked like she was about to question him again, Soul pulled Maka into his lap. She gave startled squeak. She was now laying with her head and back against his chest, her legs resting between his.

"Comfortable?" Soul spoke directly into Maka's ear and she nearly shivered. She nodded as a massive blush spread across her cheeks. "Good." He wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer still and rested his chin on top of her head. He sighed and blurted out "Your hair smells nice." _That didn't sound very cool, _he thought a moment too late.

"Thank you," Maka responded quietly, her blush getting worse. What exactly were they doing?

"Anyway, go to sleep now. You can't have any dreams about me being dead if you can feel that I'm right here." He leaned forward to look at her face with a smile and asked "Right?"

She stared at him for a moment before a slow smile spread across her features as well. "That actually makes sense. Thank you Soul."

"Any time." He felt her relax against him and smiled wider, replacing his head atop hers. "Goodnight Maka."

"Goodnight Soul."

In a matter of minutes they had fallen into a peaceful slumber and their small apartment was silent once more.

Blair woke with a stretch on Maka's bed the next morning. She turned to find that the girl hadn't returned to her bed. She woke Blair up the night before saying "Just a dream, go back to sleep," and then leaving the room.

She shrugged, leaped lightly off the bed, and wandered down the hall in cat form. She strolled into the living room and stopped. Her slit pupils widened at what she saw. Soul and Maka were sound asleep on the couch. Soul's arms were wrapped firmly around his meister's waist as she slept in his lap, head resting on his chest with a peaceful smile on her face.

The cat grinned mischievously. "Meahahahahow. Camera, Blair needs to find a camera." She sprinted down the hall and came back minutes later in human form with the object she was looking for. She snapped a perfect picture of the two and laughed to herself. She was going to have so much fun with this.

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_Oh, Blair. I've noticed with most Soul and Maka fics the authors tend to forget that Blair lives in their apartment. If you want her out of the way just mention that she's at work or something, but don't ignore her entire existence. So I wanted to make sure she was involved in this one. Probably gonna make this a two-shot. I've got a basic idea for a funny second chapter. I think from the end you can guess where the story would go. ;P Anyway, reviews are loved, hope you liked it._


	2. The only exception

_Chapter 2 is done! 1000 words longer than the last chapter too... Anyway, I finished this at 1am last night, and I've proof read it a couple times so I think it's good, but 1am might mean less than satisfactory writing, we'll see. Hope you like it!_

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Maka blinked awake and wondered what she was doing in the living room. Then she looked behind her and wondered further what she was doing in Soul's arms. She quickly remembered with a smile. Soul had calmed her down after she'd had that awful nightmare.

She'd woken up screaming the night before. In her dream she'd been in the middle of an abandoned battlefield, surrounded by bodies. Once she looked, she realized that the dead around her were all the people she cared about. Tsubaki and Black Star; Kid, Liz, and Patti; Crona; her mama and papa. She had stumbled away in terror only to trip and fall over something. She turned to find Soul laying in a massive pool of his own blood and staring blankly upward. At that point she wasn't sure what was more horrifying, the empty, lifeless look in Soul's eyes, or the fact that when she'd fallen she became covered in his blood.

She'd gone into the kitchen to calm down so she wouldn't wake anyone up. But then Soul had come out anyway. She'd broken down when she saw him, all she could think of were the dead eyes and blood from the dream. But he was alive, and he held onto her until she calmed down. Soul was the one person she could always count on to be there for her.

Maka glanced at the clock. There were still a few more minutes before she had to get ready for school. She could enjoy this for a little longer. She'd felt silly the night before when she'd asked Soul to hold onto her a while longer. She had really needed it, she just wasn't completely over the dream, but it still felt childish to ask. Now she was less traumatized and wanted to stay like this simply because she liked the feeling of it. Maka had realized a while back that she must be falling for Soul. The idea terrified her, because isn't that exactly what had happened with her mother and father? But she continued to remind herself that Soul was _not_ her father. He would never hurt Maka the way Spirit had hurt her mother. He simply wasn't that kind of person. She assumed he couldn't be interested in her that way though, until last night. The position he'd put them in seemed like a small step in that direction.

Looking at the clock again, Maka knew she had to get up. She tried to move off the couch only to find that Soul was holding her firmly in place. She blushed again, then gently poked him in the gut with her elbow. "Soul? Time to get up."

He grumbled in his sleep and pulled her tighter. Her face was on fire now. "Soul, wake up. Soul!"

"Huh?" He made an irritated face and opened his eyes. He looked surprised for half a second. Then, "Oh. Morning, Maka."

"Good morning, Soul." She grinned at him. His voice sounded very gravelly from sleep and she found it funny. "Sorry I had to wake you up, but I need to start making breakfast and you've kind of got me stuck."

He looked down and quickly removed his arms from where they'd locked around her waist. "Oh, sorry." He smiled awkwardly, his sharp teeth making it more absurd.

Maka laughed and got up. "Don't worry about it. It was funny." She stretched and moved toward her room to get dressed, but stopped and turned back to face her partner. "By the way, thanks again, Soul. For helping me out last night."

"Any time, Maka." He smiled, a much more sincere one this time.

She nodded and went to her room. Upon entering, she found Blair pulling something off her printer and placing it on a fairly thick stack. "Good morning, Blair."

The cat jumped slightly. "Good morning, Maka!" She grabbed the stack of papers off the desk and pulled them against her so the young meister couldn't see.

"What are you up to?" Maka asked with a curious look.

"Just printing something up for work."

"Alright then. Do you want anything for breakfast? I'm going to cook after I get dressed."

"No, no, I'm good. Blair needs to get to work right away. I'll eat on the way." She backed out of the room waving energetically. "Thanks for the offer. See you later!"

Maka stared after the cat woman. "Well, _that_ was suspicious." She muttered as she closed the door.

About an hour later, Maka and Soul were dressed in their Spartoi uniforms and on Soul's motorcycle headed for school. "Remind me to buy some bleach later," Maka said conversationally from behind him on the bike. "We're going to destroy these white uniforms."

Soul laughed. "Yeah, probably not the best color choice." They pulled up in front of the school and he parked his bike. "I like it though. Commands respect. Makes me look cool."

"Yeah, because being a Death Scythe just isn't cool enough for you." She nudged him playfully as they walked up the steps.

"Of course." He grinned showing off his shark teeth. "You know who's gonna ruin their uniform first though?"

"Black Star," they said at the same time. They both burst out laughing.

"Tsubaki will need an industrial sized bottle of bleach," Maka said with a giggle.

Soul laughed along. He glanced sideways after a minute. "Just when I thought the staring had died down a little."

Maka looked around too. "You're right. It's like that first day all over again. Weird."

"I wonder why they're all so interested?"

"I'm wondering more what this is about." She pointed ahead to where a large crowd of students had gathered.

"Isn't that one of the notice boards?"

"I think so. Let's check it out." The partners approached the crowd and started trying to make there way to the front. "Excuse us." The crowd parted when they realized who it was. _Wow, we really do get more respect now,_ she thought. This thought was dashed from her mind though when she saw what had been tacked to the board.

Posted dead center was a perfect picture of Maka and soul asleep together on the couch in their apartment. "Oh my god!" Maka gasped and threw a hand over her mouth.

"Shit!" Soul nearly fell when he saw it. "How the hell did this happen!"

"Blair," Maka said with a horrified look. "It has to be Blair. She had a big stack of papers and she was in a rush when she left. She must've come to the school and put these up."

"How big a stack are we talking?"

Maka grabbed the nearest student by the collar. "You! How many of these are there?"

The boy cringed under Maka's deadly glare. "Th-there's one on every board in the school."

"There's gotta' be like fifty of those!" Soul shouted as Maka dropped the unfortunate bystander.

"Fifty-six." Maka corrected. "I've had to post things on them before. But this academy is gigantic, how could she have possibly done this so fast?"

"She's a crazy magic cat that's how."

"Oh no." Maka's face paled with a look of dawning horror "Soul, if these are all over the school there's no way he'll miss them. And he'll blow it way out of proportion. This is _not _good." She had her head in her hands now, as if she were trying to fight off a headache.

"Wait," Soul said, "Are you talking about your-"

"MAAKAAAAAAA!" A man with bright crimson hair came barreling around the corner.

"Papa," she muttered in absolute mortification.

"Maka!" Spirit screamed again, grabbing his daughter by the shoulders. "What is this? What happened! Tell me this isn't a real photo! Someone doctored it, right?" He was hysterical. Then he saw Soul. "You little bastard! What did you do to my Daughter! Did you take her innocence?"

"PAPA!" Maka screamed, her face tomato-red. He did not just say that in the middle of all these people. "What the heck is wrong with you!"

"What's wrong? There are slanderous photos of my daughter all over the school!"

"Slanderous?" Soul arched an eyebrow at Spirit's choice of vocabulary.

"Don't you mock me you little brat! What did you do to my Maka?"

"Nothing happened!" Maka shouted in irritation. She was grinding her teeth together as she yanked her father by the collar out of site of the crowding students. Soul followed behind them as the fully grown man was dragged off to a much less crowded part of the school by his teenage daughter.

Once they had reached a fairly deserted corridor, Maka finally released her grip on Spirit's shirt. "Alright," she said as calmly as she could. "Now that we're not in some place you can _embarrass_ me, let's talk about this normally."

"What did you do!" Spirit yelled his question in Soul's direction.

"I think when Maka said normally she meant _not_ shouting." Soul knew he probably wasn't helping the situation with this response, but he refused to be yelled at for something he didn't do.

"Okay, no shouting." Spirit was grinding his teeth now as he tried to stay calm. "What was that picture about? What did you do to my baby girl?"

"Nothing." Maka clarified yet again.

"That didn't look like nothing. Are you two…" Spirit seemed afraid to ask the question on his mind. "Are you dating?"

"Um, no," Soul said with a blush on his face.

Spirit let out a heavy sigh of relief. "Good. Because you are far too young for a boyfriend, Maka. But that still doesn't explain why you were touching her in that picture."

Spirit didn't seem to have noticed that Maka was slowly starting to boil over with rage. This fact had not however escaped Soul's notice, and he attempted to carefully edge away. Before he got even an inch away though, she exploded.

"He was comforting me from a nightmare, okay? We fell asleep on the couch after I cried myself out, that's it!" Spirit looked like he was about to try to hug her when he heard the words "nightmare" and "cried," but Maka was not finished raging. "Not that it's any of your business in the first place! And another thing, Soul is not my boyfriend, but if he was, _that_ wouldn't be any of your business either! I'm plenty old enough to date if I want to and you don't get to tell me what to do. _Especially_ when it comes to dating because you are completely incapable of being in a successful, monogamous relationship! You are the _last_ person I would ever take dating advice from, papa!"

Spirit just blinked at his daughter as she glared daggers at him in a way that reminded him _very _much of her mother. He wasn't sure how to respond. He felt he had every right to know what his child was doing. And, though he was hurt by her statement, he couldn't honestly argue with her when it came to his failed love life. He opened and closed his mouth like fish before Maka grabbed Soul by the arm.

"Come on, Soul, we don't want to be late for class." And with that, they left Spirit to his own devices in the empty hallway.

"Maka, are you okay?" Soul asked in a careful tone once they were away from her dad.

"Just peachy," she grumbled back. The young meister still had a viselike hold on his arm.

"Do you want to maybe stop walking so fast and talk about it?" Soul prepared himself for a possible Maka chop as her response, but instead she stopped in the middle of the hall and sighed.

"You know, I have some really great memories of papa and me from when I was a kid. But I have a lot _more_ memories of him cheating on mama." She remembered following him out of the house sometimes to see where he went, and it was always the same thing. He was always with some woman who was not her mother. "Usually it doesn't bug me that much when he tries to give me advice," she continued. "But it really irritates me that he's trying to tell me what to do with my love life because…" _He's the reason I'm afraid to date._

Soul moved around to stand in front of Maka, so he could look her in the eyes. She looked up at him with a sad smile.

"He's the reason I won't trust anyone with my emotions. I grew up watching what he did to my mother and… I don't ever want to get hurt like that. I'm afraid of trusting anyone with my heart." _Anyone but Soul_, she thought to herself. "The only one I'm willing to completely trust," she paused to make fully sure he was listening. "Is you. You're the only one who I _know _is never, _ever_ going to hurt me." Maka glanced down from Soul's apparently baffled face to see that she was still holding him by the arm. She let her hand drift down to hold his hand instead, then smiled up at him. "You have no idea what that means to me."

They stood in silence, Soul looking very stunned, as if he had no idea how to react.

Finally, Maka giggled. "Come on, Soul, let's get to class." She tugged him down the hall in the direction of their classroom. They didn't say anything else, but Maka held onto Soul's hand the whole way and walked a little closer to him than she normally would. _There's no need to rush him_, she thought. _We'll just take baby steps._

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_When I spell checked this, I had to add Maka, Tsubaki, and Crona to my word processor's dictionary. XD Alright, story is done. I'm hesitant to mark it as complete because something just feels incomplete here and I can't figure out what. I'd love to hear your feedback, so please leave a review and I hope you liked the story!_

_Also, if you have not heard the song _The Only Exception_ by Paramore you should go listen to it real quick because it always makes me think of Maka.  
_


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